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Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

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Back in the early '50's when the first VW shipments got to the UK, 90% of the cars were vandalised before they got to the dealership, such was the anti German feeling because of what the Nazi's had done a few years earlier.

I'm sincerely hoping people don't start taking it out on Tesla's. I've already had one leary comment at a charging point a few days ago about how can you live with yourself driving that, knowing who owns the company! Never had anyone even mention Elon before to me locally, but he's getting reported on our news channels now, generally described as a "controversial figure" or similar. :(
Come on now. Easy retort. How can you live with yourself driving a (fill in the VW, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes et al vehicle of choice) after they experimented on humans and THEN emissions cheated knowing their cars don’t just pollute the planet but prematurely kill people? How can you drive a GM after they knew their cars killed people just by having too many bobbles on the key chain and they had to be legally forced to recall them for a $300 repair? How could you drive - it’s literally endless.

The idea that someone thinks it’s a good idea/productive action or that they’re somehow above you and need to approach you at a charger to point a finger because the CEO, who btw is trying to save them and their children from themselves, is the biggest pile of hypocrisy and crock of 💩. That right there is reason 83 why people suck. Righteous, sanctimonious, gullible, judgemental, unaware cesspools of walking destruction.

You can buy my set of Throw-It-Right-Back-At-Them Cat Cue Cards for just 5 TSLA shares. That’s a screaming bargain.
 
What if Tesla increased their volume of Tesla connectors (for the car) and sold them for so much less than the CCS manufacturers that Legacy OEM's could not pass up significant savings when designing the interface for their cars?

Better yet, what if one or more stand-alone OEM suppliers were licensed by Tesla to make the connector, so the OEM doesn't have to purchase it from Tesla directly?
One of the best ideas I've seen on this forum! They could leave off any Tesla branding so as not to ruffle any feathers.
 
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Yeah, well, I didn't think back in 2017/2018 the CEO and co-founder of Tesla would be buying a social media platform. I would have thought that even by today he would still be focused on expanding Tesla's growth and making an even bigger name for himself in the renewable transition. Looks like he made his name in something else now...

Then you don't understand Elon Musk's ultimate goal in life.

His true end goal is to build a colony on Mars, and everything he does is ultimately aimed at that goal.

Tesla is about renewable energy and autonomous transportation (for Mars). SpaceX is about affordable space travel (and regular flights to Mars) plus planetary internet and communications (Starlink on Mars). Boring is about tunneling underground (which will likely be how the Mars transportation infrastructure is constructed from the very start). And Twitter, or the X app, the "everything" app, is ultimately about a social utility to enable a new society on Mars to establish easily. Banking, communication, social media, video, chat and calling, these are all things the new Twitter will very likely attempt to integrate. If Elon is successful then Twitter could compete with YouTube, Amazon, Google search and maps, Facebook, telecommunications, etc.

Tesla is only one piece of Elon's grand master plan, life on Mars, and wanting him to focus ONLY on Tesla is, to be blunt, foolish. He will never do that, it's not what he is doing here.
 
I am far from a ML expert, but thought I'd share my newfound perspective on bFSD- turning more bullish :
I've been somewhat critical of the progress of bFSD for awhile now. It requires a considerable amount of interventions for most of my suburb and city commutes around Southern California. It doesn't drive as "good" as I do for many of the maneuvers. Honestly, it often embarrasses me when interacting with other vehicles. It still exhibits random phantom braking and often brakes far more abruptly and less smoothly than me. I can go on, but you get the point. My disappointment is primarily with the gap between what I want it to do (end state) and what it really does (capability today).

I'm beginning to think of it differently now. I think seeing the addition of the occupancy network gave me new insight. While Tesla has ultimately been working on giving me what I want (end state)...tactically, they've been working more on the building blocks that will ensure their ability to eventually fully solve the problem. They've been adding new NN components like Birds-eye 3D space and then the occupancy network, etc. Each of these new approaches allowing better training to solve problems that have been elusive before. The current capability of bFSD is more a testament that the building blocks are approaching "good enough". I suspect many of the things I want bFSD to do better, Tesla has confidence (or even knowledge) that they have the correct building blocks to allow iterate training to ultimately improve and master, so they turn their attention on the next problem to ensure it's solvable. I feel like their energy hasn't been to iterate the current NN to be the best it can be, rather iterate enough to highlight the next new building block required. It feels like the ratio of energy used for seeking new building blocks vs iterating the current ones is shifting towards iteration and that's when we can start to see things improve quickly.
I was just going to post something similar. I too have gained a new, more positive outlook on FSD beta (bFSD). I've previously said that in its current form it has zero utility. Yesterday changed my mind.

I was on a 7 hour trip and I was rerouted off of the Interstate for about 3 hours of that trip. Basically, I had to take side roads and state highways in order to pass through the entire state of Tennessee. This included winding paths through the mountains and neighborhoods in small towns. It dealt with a lot of odd situations with strangely-shaped intersections and pedestrian encounters.

bFSD performed very, very well. Since I didn't know where I was going I was really glad that the car knew when to slow down and take turns. Phantom braking was almost non-existent. And what there was of it was so subtle it was almost unnoticeable.

I did have two "take over immediately" situations. Neither can be explained because the car was not in an odd situation at all. It just suddenly told me to take over. Obviously, we can't have that for a Robotaxi. But for a driver assist system, it's ok.

The other problem it still has is that it moves into turn lanes when there is no turn coming up. That causes some bad problems and as I see it, that's the next big thing they need to fix.

But overall, I was extremely impressed. FSD is definitely improving and improving fast. It makes me wish the stock was going down today instead of up. Because yesterday's experience made me want to buy more shares.
 
Sad that you’re not a global trade czar. Trade barriers end out harming the imposers more than they do the imposee. They’re an easy sell to jingoists and populists.

I had the privilege of sitting on the AB of a software logistics company for a few years. Learned a lot that I wish was more common knowledge with our politicians (and other countries politicians).
 
Then you don't understand Elon Musk's ultimate goal in life.

His true end goal is to build a colony on Mars, and everything he does is ultimately aimed at that goal.

Tesla is about renewable energy and autonomous transportation (for Mars). SpaceX is about affordable space travel (and regular flights to Mars) plus planetary internet and communications (Starlink on Mars). Boring is about tunneling underground (which will likely be how the Mars transportation infrastructure is constructed from the very start). And Twitter, or the X app, the "everything" app, is ultimately about a social utility to enable a new society on Mars to establish easily. Banking, communication, social media, video, chat and calling, these are all things the new Twitter will very likely attempt to integrate. If Elon is successful then Twitter could compete with YouTube, Amazon, Google search and maps, Facebook, telecommunications, etc.

Tesla is only one piece of Elon's grand master plan, life on Mars, and wanting him to focus ONLY on Tesla is, to be blunt, foolish. He will never do that, it's not what he is doing here.
Whilst I find the whole colony on Mars thing immensely interesting as an engineering challenge, I just don't really get it. The place is dead and can only sustain life lived in a sealed bubble. You can't terraform it either as its in the wrong place, and it has no active core so any atmosphere you did create will just drift off and it'll end up back as a dead planet! Happy to be told why I'm really wrong on that one, maybe via pm as this is off topic!
 
I had the privilege of sitting on the AB of a software logistics company for a few years. Learned a lot that I wish was more common knowledge with our politicians (and other countries politicians).

Savings flows are the biggest determinant of trade surpluses and deficits. Tariffs do very little to change it ultimately. See Michael Pettis “The Great Rebalancing “ or “Trade Wars are Class Wars”.
 
It's a pretty sound theory that the CEO selling large amounts of shares to buy an unrelated company and Tweeting what many would consider rather questionable things could cause investors to lose confidence. That could lead to selling and/or reluctance to buy. I'm an example of both where in the past I would have been buying a dip aggressively. I know I'm not alone in this.
Elon's behavior has also eclipsed the once stellar Tesla brand. Instead of conjuring the image of high tech electric vehicles, Tesla is now about Elon and his antics. Many friends (including my wife) will not buy a Tesla any longer.

My wife's eTron GT is also making me rethink the value proposition of Tesla for the high end market.
 
Listen, if you’re going to go full on Drama Queen as least give us some advanced warning.

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However (I never meant to write that word after the above sentence, but)....
I sat down this Sunday with an older couple I happen to know. They have been driving a Model S for years and love the car.
He is one of Switzerland's most respected foreign relations diplomats. He teaches policy students as a professor emeritus at two universities in Switzerland.
He said if Elon doesn't get his act together, he's going to have to look for another electric car brand the next time he buys a car - and his point was the piece about Ukraine.

It would really, really help if Elon would stop spreading misleading or ambiguous posts.

I still love him, but sometimes I have a hard time defending him.
 
Come on now. Easy retort. How can you live with yourself driving a (fill in the VW, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes et al vehicle of choice) after they experimented on humans and THEN emissions cheated knowing their cars don’t just pollute the planet but prematurely kill people? How can you drive a GM after they knew their cars killed people just by having too many bobbles on the key chain and they had to be legally forced to recall them for a $300 repair? How could you drive - it’s literally endless.
This is my go to argument. "I'll buy some other EV aside from Tesla!"
"Oh? Which one? A VW? MIT shows that they killed a few thousand people with emissions cheating. Is that better than being a jerk on twitter?" Pretty much all makers have been caught doing the same, and those who haven't spent decades fighting against pollution controls and safety systems like seatbelts.

The bickering fuels our gains!
😈

Well in that case, you are all jerks and your opinions are wrong and if you like cats more than dogs you are wrong but also somehow if you prefer dogs to cats you are wrong too.
 

Some traders also pointed to optimism from unconfirmed reports that China could be moving away from its zero-Covid policy as a source for Tuesday’s early gains.

Huge if true ....
(my mid term calls I closed yesterday will cry ... open some new Feb's though)
 
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